Cape Wind has made clear that it intends to begin construction of its wind turbine array in Nantucket Sound in the face of a clutch of lawsuits that may not be resolved until the latter half of 2012. Meanwhile, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) joined the legal challenge this week.

The tribe says that the project would do irreparable damage to the seabed of Horseshoe Shoal, which, a press statement declares, is “critical to potentially understanding their ancient occupation of this hemisphere.” Other objections include alteration by ‘excessive obstruction” of views of the Sound considered “significant to their identity and spirituality.”